It is time to forget about centralized planning and wasting money on government spending. It is puerile to be still talking about wealth re-distribution. Instead, we must get back to the only stimulus that has ever worked — old fashioned American entrepreneurship.

We can trace our proud tradition of free enterprise back to the very founding of our nation.

Benjamin Franklin is generally regarded as the nation’s first entrepreneur. His many useful inventions include bifocals, an odometer, the lightning rod, swim fins, watertight bulkheads for ships, and the wood stove.

From our beginning, there was a realization when entrepreneurs generate wealth for themselves they expand the wealth pool of all Americans. They create opportunities for the many individuals they employ and for the vendors from which they purchase goods and services. They continuously develop technological innovations that improve our lives and the profits their businesses earn have brought countless benefits to communities everywhere through philanthropy and reinvestment in local enterprises.

Through the American people the sturdy pillars of entrepreneurism emerged: venturing into the unknown, living outside our comfort zone and conquering our fears. A fiery passion that could never be extinguished was forged from the ore of our dreams — the passion to succeed for our families, our country and for ourselves.

It’s no wonder since the birth of the United States we have nurtured small businesses with a fertile economic environment. We have provided them stability, predictability and opportunity. And they have repaid this nation in spades with job creation and an expanding tax base. They are without doubt the reason this nation has been so incredibly successful and drawn people from around the world who want to share in our unbridled spirit of optimism.

So why is this administration abandoning the people and principles that have made this country great? Why do they overlook the core value of entrepreneurialism embedded deep in our souls? After all our small businesses are responsible for 70 percent of all jobs created this past decade and according to a recent Pew Research Poll they are the most trusted institution in America.

A look back at history finds that on a percentage basis, the nation's most productive years were during the beginning of the 20th century when the U.S. surpassed Great Britain to become the world's leading economic power. It is no coincidence this occurred in 1913, before the creation of the Federal Reserve which today is turning our currency into worthless paper through mountains of debt.

There was no need for a stimulus package because American ingenuity and sweat equity built this country’s economy and employed millions of workers. It would have been unthinkable to expect the federal government to hand out money to a business in trouble. When a business failed, owners tried something new and usually succeeded in building a more successful business. Thomas Edison famously said: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Let’s face it. This administration has lost faith in American entrepreneurship. Week after week brings new federal bailouts and handouts while the debt crisis implodes. Instead of creating an environment where entrepreneurialism can flourish they spend their time picking winners and losers. The American economy, once the envy of the world, is like a pinball being slapped around; randomly bouncing from bumper to bumper while 20 million Americans sit at home unemployed with no hope for anything better anytime soon.

As Benjamin Franklin, our original entrepreneur once said: “History affords us many instances of the ruin of states, by the prosecution of measures ill-suited to the temper and genius of their people. The ordaining of laws in favor of one part of the nation, to the prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly the most erroneous and mistaken policy.”

I can think of a few people now occupying the most powerful offices of this land that need to rediscover these words as only entrepreneurship can lead us to prosperity.

It is time to forget about centralized planning and wasting money on government spending. It is puerile to be still talking about wealth re-distribution. Instead, we must get back to the only stimulus that has ever worked old fashioned American entrepreneurship.
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